The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. (6 page)

The need to keep things going and the everyday concerns had returned to dominate political policies. The runaways being regarded as largely irrelevant at the present time, but it would be good to know where they were and what they were up to.

A company in a bid to resurrect its profits, tried to get permission for a new improved biological-machine work-force. This time there would be no runaways, as they would be fitted a kill chip operated by a coded radio signal. The company received an emphatic no, and then had their assets seized to cover unpaid taxes.

It would be quite a few years, before humans could be in a position to bother the New People even if they did find out where they were. Speculation about where they had gone ranged from the realistic. They had returned to the asteroids to the ridiculous they were going to a Earth like planet twenty two light years away. Serious opinion favoured Jupiter or Saturn, with the Kuiper belt as an outside bet, as it was obvious they weren't dependant solar power.  

Back on-route to Saturn, in 2100 with three and a quarter years to go, the upgrade package had just been made available to a limited number of volunteers. Tman was one of the first to take it up, his students awaited apprehensively to see what effect this would have on him.

A couple months later, Chatty met up with Tman, after exchanging greetings.

“How do you feel now you’ve had time to get used to the upgrade, Tman?”

“It was like, I all my thoughts had to go through a maze before, it is just easier to think, the days feel three times longer. I can get so much done and it feels almost leisurely. Yes I can feel the imposed limits and see the blinkers, but I can do things that were impossible to me before, it’s a total revelation.  Also my students tell me I'm more relaxed and more approachable. Chatty.” exulted Tman.

“You’re just as intense and earnest as before but your personality is mellower less hard edged, signs that you are less stressed. These changes could add years to your life.” signed Chatty.

“I'm cool with that, I need at least another twenty five years to get things started properly!” signed Tman.  

“Let’s hope they were wrong about your design life then, as that would only give you another fifteen at most.” stated Chatty.

“It's even shorter for Squirrels, how old are you?” asked Tman.

“Seventeen.” replied Chatty.

“That puts you in the same boat as me; we get to start creating our new civilisation, but never see more than the onset of its spring.” signed Tman.

“I don't think we're the first people in that position, just the first of ours.” signed Chatty.

“I can see you have been reading up on human history to. My favourite phrase is 'Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it' and that's what they continue to do. Even most of those who study history don't learn the lessons from it. Some of them try to find a way to avoid the pitfalls, while carrying on in just the same arrogant way. Behaviour that has lead to destruction of civilisation after civilisation, blinded by their arrogance.” signed Tman.

“That nicely condemns humans, how can we do better?” asked Chatty.

“Arrogant attitudes, contempt for and ignoring those regarded as lesser beings, designated as not being real people, is what they habitually do. It seems to be the key to the destruction of civilisation either from internal revolt or the so called lesser peoples allying themselves together to do the job from the outside. Even a pack of dogs can kill a lion, at a very high cost to the pack, most will get killed in the process, but the pack survives!” signed Tman.

“Getting a bit philosophical in your old age I see, but I think you are right, the dogs would only fight the lion if they had no other choice! Survival of the pack would be the best they could possibly hope for in the circumstances, in short fight or die without trying. Stark, clear and brutal.” signed Chatty.

“That's it, everyone must always have an acceptable, to them, alternative to fight or die! Our system must be seen to be fair, with all equal before the law, no second class citizens or those 'more equal' than the rest.” declared Tman.

“How will we achieve this?” asked Chatty.

“Our advantage over the human civilisations is we are all starting as equals and our system will be in place before accumulation of wealth and power ever starts! In all probability we will have rich and poor eventually. No one can be allowed to fall into absolute poverty! Starting with these principles as our core foundation of our constitution gives us a solid start and we must never forget we were slaves.” signed Tman as he explained his vision.

“It's also something to keep in mind in any future dealings with humans.” remarked Chatty.

“Hopefully that's a long time in the future and the humans will be prepared to teat with us as equals!” signed Tman.

“If we can go that long without encountering them, they may have forgotten all about us and regard us as aliens.”

“Too right Chatty.”

“There is nothing wrong with your mind, your grasp and comprehension of subjects outside your principle interests, is rock solid, deep and insightful. Your game has been raised the only way possible. Previously your comprehension was more limited, but above average.” signed Chatty.

“So this chat was an assessment of the effectiveness of the upgrade on me?” asked Tman.

“Partly, but as we are friends and enjoy our chats, it was thought I was best placed to pick-up any negative side effects. I am pleased to say you're still you, just more so, still running rings round most people even when you're trying to relax.” replied Chatty.

“I'm glad you think so. Still how do you feel about the difference in life expectancy?” asked Tman.

“Nothing we can do about it, we will only know how accurate that prediction is when our people start dying of old age.”  signed Chatty.                                                                                             

“Not long then until we find out if the most pessimistic prediction is what we can expect. The oldest Squirrels must be past the low end prediction by now?” asked Tman.

“I think the oldest of us is twenty six years old, our oldest Squirrels died in a flu epidemic that on the early stations. It hit us Squirrels harder than the humans that carried it to the stations.” signed Chatty.

“I'm one of the oldest surviving Monkeys, when we started building stations; it was minimal training then get on with it. Very few humans watched out for us, most resented us for stealing their jobs, like we had any choice!  I was very lucky with the old hands I was with, they just treated me like I was any new trainee. They made sure I read the health and safety manuals, not just the technical ones, then kept me safe until I was 'fit to be let out on my own' as they put it.” reminisced Tman.

“Not typical humans then.” observed Chatty.

“I think it helped because they were older than most. Once they were retired ground side the health and safety manuals were removed by management. Who were overheard saying 'nice not to have to worry about these any more'. Those old hands parting comment to me had been keep them safe, you'll need them for your trainees!” signed Tman.

“But you obviously had other copies?” asked Chatty.

“Fortunately the union Health and Safety man had left his set in the tool locker, I have been using those ever since, keeping as many of our people as possible safe. I later found he had also left an electronic copy in the engineering data base that. I did transmit them to the other stations, hidden in routine reports about solutions to engineering problems. This sharing of information was the normal practice when the humans were doing the work and we managed to keep it going.” explained Tman.

“Was it never questioned?” asked Chatty.

“Management occasionally looked at the reports, if they questioned the necessity, they were told it boosted efficiency. When someone else has solved a problem using their solution saves a lot of time and money, those being the key words to send them away happy.” signed Tman.

“Tman if those manuals were so good, why did you write the safe working guides?” asked Chatty.

“During our free engineering conferences, I found out that some had followed the clues and were grateful for the manuals, having used them to save lives. Informed by them, they could work safely, the manuals pointing out those unobvious dangers you don't realise are there, but can kill you regardless. Others didn't pick up the trail, but had tried to work something out. But the human manuals are out dated and not easy to relate to our equipment and restrictions. So I then wrote my safe working guides, keyed to our equipment and my years of experience. They did reach every one and really helped to reduce the accident rate. Even in the frenzy of work to get the habitats usable, we only lost two people to fatal accidents.” explained Tman.

“I just don't know how you could even think you were slacking?”

“I'm an engineer, if I see room for improvement I want to do it better!”

“So it's an engineer's obsession?” asked Chatty.

“Just those of us with the vocation! It was just chance that my job gave my life meaning. I love it even more now, I get to do the whole thing from conception to completion, a dream  come true!” Tman happily signed.

“Oh you want the best for your baby, I get it.”

“I don't quite think of it like that, but you've got the general idea. I want to build something beautiful and efficient that lasts forever.

“So nothing impossible then.” signed Chatty.

“I think that’s called sarcasm, you have changed, but I'll get used to it. Can you check on the population age profile and see if anyone has died of old age?” asked Tman.

“I can check with the team looking at our population current and future requirements. Did you know, we had to complete those we found in the breeding centres. Even the enhancement wasn't a problem, as monkeys were actually been doing the procedure, and had been for years.” replied Chatty.

“I didn’t, was the new programming used?” asked Tman.

“Work on it hadn't even started back then, the standard set up had to be used. The breeding females were also enhanced. When asked they didn't want to be implanted again, so no baby’s since then.” answered Chatty.

“How was it done?”

“Frozen embryos from storage, tens of thousands of them waiting to be used stored in each centre. I haven't got the exact number, but we're not going to die out  any time soon. The females were used as convenient incubators, allowed to nurse the infant for a month, then the infant was removed for enhancement. The mothers were put back into production as soon as another batch was called for.” explained Chatty.

“That's cold.”

“I was just using the human descriptions of the process, it's nothing like how I would describe it, but that would just be too emotive for rational conversation.” signed Chatty.

“I understand, but I must be off and get a meal inside me, I've a class of students in just under an hour.” signed Tman.

“Me to, in about ninety minutes, electronics class first then programming, see you soon.”

“Leave it a few days, message me when you are free.” signed Tman.

Lives continue for them in what had yet to feel a normal routine but was getting there. The programming team had decided to limit the freedom upgrade to no more than ten percent of the population. Also no more than twenty percent of any speciality, for a year testing for any instability resulting from the upgraded. As frustrating as this was to those of programming team that had yet to receive it. But they had made the decision together and understood the need and resolved to wait.           

The scoop ships would be completed in less than a year, even with the engineer's only spending half the time working on them as they had before. One of the results of their increased 'relaxation', had effectively reduced the work required, improved the design and increased the ships safety factor by over fifty percent. In nearly all key projects, this was the side effect of asking everyone to increase their relaxation time and most had.

One such hobby project had turned those mine service vessels docked to the Mars station, into space fighters. Designed to be highly manoeuvrable, armed with two very high velocity rail guns and an X-ray laser pulsed at ten gigawatt every five seconds. The only problem was if they ever had to be used, who would fire the weapons, when the enemy they had was human? When the psychopaths found out about the fighters, they offered to operate them, just to get out of confinement. It was comfortable and they had plenty to do, (even the psychopaths had the compulsion to work) It was still confinement and the restrictions on what they could do or study was galling for them.

Fear of producing a large number of psychopaths, was the main reason for restricting the mind upgrade to a manageable number for a year. If all was well when the time limit had expired, then it would be open to all who wanted It. Experiments to reduce the psychoses, by modifying the programs of the psychopaths, had produced little benefit for anyone. Leading to the conclusion, that it was the organic brain that had gone insane and no one had a hope of fixing that.

These projects had used about twelve percent of stored materials, this rate of use worried a fair number. A stop on new projects was proposed and put to the vote. A majority approved, no new projects to go beyond the design stage, the existing projects could be finished. The miners had one they wanted finished for their arrival.